Monday, August 09, 2004

Dear New York Times

Timothy O'Brien's "Reconstruction" piece on Wednesday , June 25, 2003 ("Crime and Poor Security Hurt Effort in Iraq, U.N. and American Officials Say") must have been an early draft that escaped the editing process. How else could the following sentence appear? "The meeting came as the United Nations tried to regain its footing and its international standing after the fractious Security Council debates that preceded the American-led invasion of Iraq in March."

Of course, as any reasonable person knows, it is actually the Bush and Blair Administrations which have stumbled and lost their international standing due to plagiarized dossiers of lies, henny penny sky is falling doomsday scenarios and 'make-up-your-own-intelligence-as-you-go-along' policies. The United Nations only lost its standing with the Republican party which was already obscenely low to begin with.

While Mr. O'Brien's article mentions that the United Nations is appealing for more aid he neglects to mention the reason why. A quick look at the United
Nations Development Program Website reveals that [at the meeting] "there was a general agreement that petroleum income will not be sufficient to cover Iraq's reconstruction needs over the next few years, making such donor assistance essential." 'Petroleum Income Not Sufficient' would have and should have been the appropriate headline for the reconstructive essay.

Either The New York Times needs to start doing a better job editing their 'journalists' or Mr. O'Brien must still mistakenly believe that the job of White House flack remains open.

Contributors

"Or take this guy, Ron Brynaert, a tenacious (lefty, stand alone) investigator with an instinct for where information and proof and the jugular are. He's a natural: Why isn't he on someone's I-team?" Jay Rosen, June 6, 2005.